Have you ever watched that movie, Mousetrap? You know the one - where the one mouse in the old mansion so eludes the owners that in their obsession to rid themselves of him they end up destroying the whole building?

Oh my gosh, we so understand their frustration!

When we first talked about living on board a yacht the issue of rodents never really crossed my mind, which is kind of funny, because one of the first things I remember thinking, when we decided to do this, was what Ratty says in The Wind in the Willows, Is there anything so lovely as messing around on boats?

The Wind in The Willows was such a favorite with my two oldest children that for many years they referred to each other as Ratty and Moley! And yet despite that I never thought about the possibility of us getting a rat on board the boat!

Ratty is, sadly, still residing with us and has become exceedingly unwelcome!

We have tried everything we have read about - we have set traps baited with peanut butter - no success.

We have wrapped dental floss around the peanut butter-bait so that if Ratty nibbles at it his teeth will catch and he will set off the trap to get them out - no success.

We have tried putting the trap exactly where he last ate food he stole from us - no success.

We have resorted to ratsak - but still no success.

He is amazing at finding the one item of food we hadn't thought he could get to.
He is amazing at finding the rubbish we carefully removed from the boat and dragging it back on board.

The thought of him being around, sunning himself on deck when we are out, wandering around at night when we are sleeping fills us with revulsion. Each morning I clean everything - floors are disinfected and all surfaces cleaned.

Eeeeek - when we will be free???!!!

Tonight we are going to mount a major assault. We are going to put all the traps in new locations, fully baited and ready to spring. We are going to remove every crumb available for him to feed on and clean up everything he just might try and eat. In all the places he has ever found food we are going to place a tray of ratsak and in the morning we are going to remove his dead body and dispose of him - we hope!

Meanwhile, when we haven't been dealing with our unwelcome visitor, Peter has been getting ready to go sailing. He leaves first thing in the morning, bound for Sydney where he will join our awesome friend Mark McRae who is delivering a yacht from Yamba on the NSW North coast to Albany. Peter will sail with him back down here, to Batemans Bay and then after an over-night stop, head on until maybe Port Fairy in Victoria. We are so excited! Peter will get so much out of doing this journey, not just doing a bit of sailing - which will be great - but also because he will have such a great opportunity to learn as he goes from a man we really respect.

While he is gone the children and I will manfully carry on without him - making sure the boat doesn't sink (LOL) and doing everything else he usually does. I think we might cope! We will eat sushi for dinner every night and make as much noise as we like whilst also trying to watch TV - all the things Peter hates! Hahaha! In truth we will notice his absence in many ways, but will be happy in the knowledge that he is having a great experience and will come back to us with knowledge and skills you only get by doing stuff.

He, of course, hopes that when he returns the fruit bowl is back on the table, the cookies on the shelf and Ratty definitely gone!